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All-party meet likely on WB killings

Rifat Jawaid in Calcutta

West Bengal Deputy Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya said on Sunday that his government was considering calling an all party meet on the Nanoor killings, where 11 Trinamul workers were massacred allegedly by Communist Party of India-Marxist activists.

Bhattacharya made the announcement at Writers' Building after a closed door meeting with the state Sports and Transport Minister Subhash Chakraborty and senior police officers.

Calcutta Police Commissioner Dinesh Bajpai, state Director General of Police Deepak Sanyal and Chief Secretary Manish Gupta also attended the specially-convened meeting. The meeting was called primarily to discuss the security arrangements in view of Monday's strike called by the West Bengal Youth Congress to protest the murders.

Bhattacharya told newsmen, "We were thinking of calling an all party meet after the Midnapore violence. However, it (the all party meet) becomes even more relevant in the wake of the violence in Nanoor. We have experimented with this on a district level in Midnapore and our experience suggests that it was a big success in bringing normalcy there."

Bhattacharya, however, did not specify any time frame for the meet.

Chakraborty added that the state government had no qualms in submitting a detailed report on the Nanoor killings to the Union home ministry.

However, contradicting statements of the various Left Front leaders on the Nanoor violence have drawn flak from opposition parties in Calcutta. While senior Marxist leaders like Somnath Chaterjee said the Trinamul workers killed were goons from outside, state Land and Land Revenue Minister Suryakanta Mishra recently said that none of the 11 men killed had any criminal antecedents.

According to Mishra, the deceased had come to Soochpur village merely to work in the land of one Babu Mian.

Pankaj Banerjee, a Trinamul leader, ridiculed Bhattacharya's suggestion of an all party meet.

"Buddhadeb babu has been advocating this for past five years but never bothered to translate his words into action. He said the same thing when the CPI-M men were murdering our men in Midnapore. It is unfortunate that a person of his calibre acts so irresponsibly. You will soon see how much sincerity his statements bear," Banerjee remarked.

Meanwhile, Congress Working Committee member Pranab Mukherjee alongwith the former Pradesh Congress Committee president Somen Mitra visited the disturbed area. Speaking to reporters at his south Calcutta residence, Mukherjee expressed concern on the deteriorating law and order situation in the state. He, however, refused to support Trinamul chief Mamata Banerjee's demand for Article 356 to be implemented in West Bengal.

The PCC has declined to extend support to the Youth Congress strike on Monday.

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